Bullet lube...

[flatapple]

I'm a newbie to the black powder cartridge game. Is it okay to load and shoot my Uberti .44 Russian open top with a smokeless powder lubed lead bullets...I'm only going to shoot 5 rounds?

[Outpost75]

Modern lubes on commercial hard-cast bullets aren't even very effective with smokeless, as the hard wax lubricants do not flow under pressure to coat the bore. For black powder use you really want a soft lube which will wet the black powder fouling and keep it soft. An inexpensive and effective black powder lube is to simply blend 50-50 beeswax and Crisco shortening or lard, or a 40-60 ratio of olive oil and beeswax.

You might try just a cylinder full and see how badly the gun cakes up, but I would not be hopeful. If you would boil your hard-cast bullets to melt off the hard wax lube, and then re-lube them by hand with the Crisco-beeswax or olive oil-beeswax mixture I think you will see the difference is dramatic. With bullets which fit correctly and soft lube you should be able to shoot all day without wiping or blow tubing.

I would search for a commercial caster who can provide soft bullets of 1:20 or 1:30 tin-lead alloy with SPG lube unless you want to learn to cast your own.

[Winger Ed.]

I wouldn't trust them to store well, but in a older edition of the Lyman Cast Bullet book-

There was a article about BP lubes, and a favorite of 'old timers', that they swore by was boiled chicken fat.

I'm not a BP guy, but from cooking chicken, I've learned that stuff is slicker than a used car salesman,
and ya darn near have to sandblast it off your hands.

[Martin Luber]

I think I'd swear at chicken fat too! OP didn't state what bullet type, size, and his cylinder data. It's easy to put lube over the top of some nose shapes but fit is king in BP guns.

Load and Shoot only one cylinder to start with, then maybe every other chamber.
chain firing would be nasty.

[indian joe]

I think I'd swear at chicken fat too! OP didn't state what bullet type, size, and his cylinder data. It's easy to put lube over the top of some nose shapes but fit is king in BP guns.

Load and Shoot only one cylinder to start with, then maybe every other chamber.
chain firing would be nasty.

ahhhhh
its a 44 russian hows that gonna chain fire ??
and he "only going to fire five shots" --I detest smokeless lube but five shots should not be a serious problem

maybe he just wants to shoot a cylinder full to see if its fun ???? once hes hooked he proly figure out the right way to go

or maybe hes just funnin with us ???? (first post - might be a kid playin tricks - wouldnt be the first time)

[flatapple]

Hey indian joe...you got it straight, my group of cowboy shooters practice once a week. Sometimes I bring out the black powder rounds to shoot! I am five rounds short and was just checking if it would be safe to use smokeless lube to finish up the evening of practice...just 5 rounds? The group love to see and hear the black powder rounds go off!

[Dave T]

I've never heard of a safety issue with smokeless lubed bullets vs bullets lubed with a more appropriate black powder lubricant. It just makes the gun shoot poorly and it's harder to clean. (smile)

Dave